Odes of Solomon/Ode 8

For I Do Not Turn Away My Face from My Own

¹ Open, open your hearts to exultation in the Lord,

and your love will grow from the heart to the lips,

² to bring forth fruits to the Lord, a holy life,

and to speak with awareness in his light.

³ Rise and stand upright, you who once were brought low!

⁴ You who were in silence, speak,

for your mouth has now been opened.

⁵ You who were despised, from now on be lifted up,

because your vindication has been raised.

⁶ For the right hand of the Lord is with you,

and he became your helper.

⁷ And peace was prepared for you,

before your war ever was.

⁸ Hear the utterance of truth,

and receive the knowledge of the Most High.

⁹ Your flesh will not know what I say to you,

nor will your garment know what I show to you.

¹⁰ Observe my secret, you who are kept by it!

¹¹ Observe my faithfulness, you who are kept by it!

¹² And know my knowledge, you who know me in truth!

¹³ Love me with (fervent) love, you who love!

¹⁴ For I do not turn away my face from my own,

because I know them.

¹⁵ And before they came into being

I understood them,

and their persons I sealed.

¹⁶ I fashioned their limbs,

and my own breasts I prepared for them,

that they might drink my holy milk and live by it.

¹⁷ I was well pleased in them and I am not ashamed of them.

¹⁸ For they exist as my work and (by) the power of my thoughts.

¹⁹ Who then will stand against my work,

or who is there that will not submit to them?

²⁰ I willed and formed mind and heart,

and they are mine.

And near my own right hand I set my chosen ones.

²¹ And my righteousness goes before them,

and they will not separate themselves from my name,

because it is with them.

²² Seek much

and abide in the love of the Lord,

as beloved in beloved,

and as those who are kept in the one who lives,

and as the redeemed in the one who was redeemed.

²³ And you will be found imperishable

through all ages,

for the sake of your Father’s name.

Hallelujah!